No Mistletoe Required
by TheAlphabetSong
Summary: A few Christmas's ago Nell made a deal with her family involving Eric. Bets have been placed on either side of the deal, and now that Nell is home for Christmas along with her 'boyfriend' what effect will a betting family have on their relationship. Holiday fun, family shenanigans- HUMOR,I hope. NERIC- DEFINETLY What happens on holidays, stays on holidays
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever but…. It was like my muses took a three month holiday and came back really drunk and illiterate. So that caused me inspiration to falter. I started this fanfic a while ago and then stopped writing when I started Actions and Consequences.**

 **This was meant to be a one-shot and part of the** ** _Young Geek Love_** **series, but I'm considering a couple of chapters.**

 **Thank you ncisnewbie for this idea, and I'm sorry that it took me forever to write.**

 **Please R &R**

 **TheAlphabetSong xx**

 **Disclaimer: I only own my OC's I do not own any other character's mentioned, all are property of CBS and Shane Brennan.**

"Eric, calm down. You're overreacting," Nell said as their taxi dropped them off at the bottom of her family's driveway.  
"But, won't they question the fact that you never mentioned a 'boyfriend' before?" Eric asked, pulling their suitcases out of the taxi boot.  
"Well..." Nell started, suddenly nervous and unsure of how to continue, "there may have been some assumed facts from conversations, that were never denied," she said hesitantly, as she paid the taxi driver.  
"What kinds of facts?" Eric asked again. Now standing in the snow holding his suitcase.  
"The type that you don't have an option of denying," she explained before adding, "because that's the opinion that half of my family held, and every time I tried to deny it. It was like trying to punch through stone walls with my fists."  
"And this was how long ago?"  
"The time frame is one that we will simply avoid," Nell answered, easily dodging Eric's question.  
"But, just in case it comes up."  
"Seven months."  
"Okay, seven months."  
"Let's go up because it's freezing out here," Nell said, starting up the snow covered driveways, pulling her suitcase behind her.  
Eric followed in suit, and nervously re-looped his scarf around his neck, giving him something to do as Nell knocked on the door of what was her family home.

Nell turned her head to face him, "just try and relax a little. Do you think I would willingly let you face the firing squad alone and unarmed."

He returned her gaze with a panicked expression, "There's a firing squad?"

"We're in this together," she replied before looking back at the door

They could both here the scuttle of feet nearing the door, Nell's hand found Eric's, giving it a reassuring squeeze just as the door opened.  
"AUNTY NELL!" her niece called throwing herself into Nell's open arms, before noticing Eric standing beside Nell, "GRANDMA! She brought a guest!"

'Yes,' Nell thought sarcastically, 'announce it to the entire family.'  
"Hi, Lucy," she greeted, previous thoughts aside.  
"Who's this?" Lucy asked.  
"This is Eric," Nell answered simply, before turning her head to look at Eric, "Eric, this is my niece Lucy," Lucy held out her hand for Eric to shake it, and not knowing any other way to greet people, he gladly took her hand and shook it, before she disappeared inside.  
"She's my oldest brother Liam's daughter," she explained, "she's fourteen, but has the maturity of someone much older."  
When she looked back to the door there was a crowd of people standing, ushering them inside; taking their suitcases, all greeting Nell and Eric and saying how much they were glad to see Nell. It was a buzz of noise to Eric but Nell seemed to handle it with a certain grace, and of course that beautiful smile that she wore, but there was something more in her eyes that he'd never seen before that told him that she loved these people, and was so glad to have these people in her life.

Unfortunately Eric would never be able to say the same about his family.  
His Grandmother was an obsessive racist, a Satanist and compulsive swearer with an instinctive hatred for the world, it probably had something to do with her failed marriage, her heritage, her up- bringing, and her very closed up heart, again just another product of her failed marriage.

One of his sisters had sadly died from her cocaine addiction, which she'd acquired after their mother's death in 89. He still remembered the first time he'd found her using.

 _Flashback_  
"GRACE! What the hell are you doing?!" He yelled one night, after finally finding his sister, sitting around the back of the garage.  
"Drugs," she answered sounding as though she'd just downed an entire bottle of tequila.  
"You know that they can kill you," Eric said hoping he'd get through to her.  
"You know that sitting in your room doing whatever the hell you do can probably kill you, or get you killed," she carelessly rebutted, before tumbling forward and hitting the pavement head first. He'd immediately called their father over and they'd gotten her to the hospital as quickly as they could. He remembered the waiting, all the waiting. The unknown truths of what had happened, endless doctors wandering the halls with no answers for his questions. All he was left to do was wait. And hope he hoped so desperately that Grace wouldn't die so close after their mum.

 _End of Flashback_

She had gained a concussion from hitting the ground previously, and because of the obscene amount of drugs in her system her body could not heal itself.

His other sister Annie was much more successful than Grace, but had distanced herself from the rest of her family. Eric didn't know where she was, but he'd gotten a post card, with no return address, from her a few months ago saying that she was fine and had a job as a Journalist. Annie had always been independent and self-supporting, unlike Grace who constantly relied on everything else to just work out for her. Even though Eric knew he could find Annie in under three minutes, she was family and respected her reasons for wanting to be left alone.  
His father was another story all together, one of which he was not going to re-live now which would result in dampening his mood and the Christmas spirit. Instead he focused on Nell's family.  
From everyone that he observed and all the craziness that was going on around him and the amount of times he introduced himself. He noticed two majorly and slightly concerning things, the first was that everybody seemed to recognize his name as soon as he'd said it and the second was that everyone else, except Nell, including Eric, was really tall.  
He was introduced to so many people he was struggling to remember names and faces. And suddenly everyone stopped talking and made way for someone or something to walk through, a woman who wore a striking resemblance to Nell walked straight up to Eric, surprisingly she was also just as short.  
"Mum!" Nell exclaimed and ran up to her.  
It all made perfect sense, now that he had seen Nell's mum.'  
"Nell, darling. It's so good to see you. It's so unfortunate that you work too hard, well it isn't- but you know what I mean."

"It's okay, because I love my job and it pays the bills."

With one last squeeze Nell's mum released her daughter slightly, still holding her shoulder's so that she could look her in the eyes, "Anyway, enough with the clichés," she said.

Nell laughed and then turned away from her mother's hands and towards Eric, "Mum," she started, "this is Eric."

Nell's took her gaze from her daughter and fixed Eric, who was standing very awkwardly against the wall, with a pointed stare, eyeing him up and down. She looked like she was assessing an opponent, deciding whether she would be able to take them in a fight.

"You're tall," was the first comment that came out of her mouth, there was no 'hello, nice to meet you', she was just straight to the point.

"Mum," Nell half scolded, "you said forget the clichés, not forget the formalities."

She instantly mellowed, "Oh, please forgive me I 'm sorry. It's so good to meet you in the flesh. We tend to only hear about you a few times a year, which are coincidentally the times when Nell calls. I'm Felicity by the way, my husband Phillip, he won't be home for a couple of hours." By this point in time the rest of the family had gone back to milling around and catching up with each other, although a few still lingered within earshot of the conversation. Eric suspected that it was intentional, and one look at Nell and he knew he was right.

"It's good to meet you too, I'm glad that Nell finally managed to get home for the holidays," Eric said.

"And I'm glad that when she finally came home she made good on her deal," Felicity said, with a mischievous look at her daughter.

"What deal?" Eric asked his eyes flitting between the two women standing before him.

"You didn't tell him!" A voice said. It came from one of the family members whom had been eavesdropping.

"Karmin!"

"The woman laughed, "Come on Nell, we had a deal-"

"And we had a deal in middle school that you wouldn't let your little sister get pushed to the back of the cafeteria line," Nell interrupted firing back, "but how did it happen in the end?"

"From my memory it was you that decided to have a 'conversation' with your sister and then suddenly she is at the end of the line," Felicity added jumping in on Nell's side.

"Don't worry about them, they do this every year," Lucy said from beside him taking his concentration off the argument between Nell and her family and turning it towards the girl standing next to him, as she continued, "- well they did until she stopped coming home for Christmas four years ago," she trailed off with a depressing note, "So, what do you do, as in, like a job?"

"I, I um. I'm a Photo Journalist, that's how I met Nell."

"I knew that you met her at work I just didn't know what you did. She didn't tell me last time."

"She talked about me last time she was here?"

"She did and originally only to me, but then I leaked the information and it was fair game."

"So you were the spy?"

"Yeah, I watch those kinds of movies, I read those kinds of books, and I was the only one out of my siblings and cousins that wanted to do it last time. I mean I was only ten back then, but once I have a task to complete I am a perfectionist."

"What grade are you in?"

"I'm in ninth grade, I'm fourteen turning fifteen in June," she explained, "they'll be at this for a while, come on. There's time to meet every one else before my Uncle gets home from work and before they finish what used to be their annual debate. Plus, I can't think of one person here who hasn't heard of you and wants to know more."

Eric blushed, but nevertheless followed the relentless Lucy further into the house.

"Actually, I can think of one person here who hasn't heard of you," Lucy added as an afterthought.

"Who?"

"My little cousin Rosie. She is two and a half now she wasn't even born last time Nell was here."

"How much do people know about me?"

"Not much, you're just the mysterious male love interest in Nell's life. She hasn't said much else just some very cryptic clues, like we asked how if you were tall and she would reply with 'well he's not short', and I think that's what everyone else is so fired up about. Hence the deal that was made."

"What deal?"

Lucy laughed, "No way am I filling you in now, but I'm sure that it's a story that will come out around the dinner table either tonight or tomorrow. But I must be honest I'm waiting for your reaction and the suspense is killing me."

If Eric had to guess at Lucy's motive for keeping him in the dark, he would probably say that one of her older relatives was paying her off to keep her mouth shut, or they had bet running over when all would be revealed and she didn't want to lose. Either way, he decided, there was money involved.

The rounds were made and he was glad and not so glad that Nell's family was so big because it meant that he had to have more awkward conversations and in some cases share his life's story with some prying relatives, but on the other hand it kept him from being alone and letting his own family drift back into his memory and focus. And again on the up side for every five plates of information he gave out to people about himself he received a fair amount of information on Nell in return. So, he could have been put in worse situations.

Once Lucy had introduced him to everyone in the house they circled back around to the on-going debate just inside the front door.

"That's beside the point, there is no way that she would ever have stolen and hidden your Lord of the Rings series if you hadn't of provoked her-" Nell pointed out to her older brother who had taken sides with Karmin, trying to turn them against each other.

Karmin turned to her brother, "She does this to us every time."

"And yet you still choose to play," Nell reminded her.

"Yeah, well, the big sister has to at least try to beat her younger sister at most things."

They shared a look, although it looked more as if it were a staring competition. Their faces lit up into smiles.

"I've missed that," Nell said.

"You and me both sister," Karmin started, "we tried a couple years ago, but the younger sibling is always the easiest to pick on. So without you here it was no fun."

"It's great to be back. I missed you all so much."

"And I see that since you've now returned you have brought with you a friend," Nell's nameless brother said referring to Eric, "Please tell me that for the love of god this is the Eric you didn't shut up about last year."

"You see that is where Karmin, dear sister, was wrong. I promised to make good on my deal, I did not promise to tell him about the deal."

"Yeah, well I think a lot of people would be out of pocket if you did tell him," Felicity interrupted.

Nell rolled her eyes, it was so obvious she almost slapped herself across her face. Of course they had bets going you imbecile. Don't be so naïve and believe that your family will ever change their habits.

"Well, it's good to be able to put a face to the nameless figure. Actually it's good to be able to put in anything that is more than: 'Eric- co-worker, not short' in your profile, she wouldn't even tell us what your hair colour was," Nell's brother added again, "Hi, by the way, it's nice to meet you. My name's Blake, I'm one of Nell's older brothers."

Eric held his hand out, "I'm Eric, it's nice to meet you."

They shook hands, "Before we leave I will promise you the big brother talk. You know the whole you break her heart. I'll break your neck. That whole idea," Blake explained half- jokingly.

"I'd really rather you didn't," Nell interrupted, "and besides isn't that stereotypically the father's job?"

"Yes, but Dad won't be off his shift for anywhere from half an hour to the early hours of tomorrow morning, so therefore it will be my job of scaring off your boyfriend."

"Fine," Nell said giving in, "are we in the guest bedroom?"

"Yes," Felicity replied.

"Okay, we've got it from here. Let's go get settled before my Dad gets home," Nell said walking off with her suitcase trailing behind. Eric rolled his behind as he followed Nell to the guest bedroom. His thoughts were mixed, he had obviously thought about the requirements of acting as Nell's boyfriend. He knew he would probably get the speech from her father. He knew that he would have to act at least semi-romantic with her Christmas present, and he knew that there would be questions asked when they got back to work after their trip and that they would need to have their stories straight if anything –not of that kind- but anything that they didn't want the team and Hetty, or worse- Granger finding out about. That he'd thought through. What he hadn't thought of was the prospect of sharing a room- and a bed, with her. Of course it made perfect sense according to their cover, but the thought hadn't occurred to him until now.

As they entered the guest bedroom he looked around. There was a bed in the middle of the floor, with the head board up against the wall, the bedspread cover was a simple black base with white stripes. There was a window on the far side of the room with blinds that left a checked pattern on the clothes cupboards behind where Nell and Eric were standing. Next to the cupboards there was an open door to a bathroom. Above the top end of the bed there was a framed poster that was black scrawled hand- writing on lined paper saying: ' _Wisty lives for the spotlight, but me? I'd rather write the script_ '. Across the room from the quote was a brown polished, timber desk completely contrasting to the rest of the white furnishings in the room. Atop the very out-of-place desk was a small television.

"I'm sorry about all the hassle before, and the argument, but every word was true," Nell started, "it was a yearly ritual, my mother, sister, brother and I all took side on an argument about the past. The first time was an actual argument that kind of ruined Christmas, but every year after that we'll start one because of the family tradition it became."

"Don't apologise for having a family reunion, it's been, what? Five years since you've seen them?" Eric questioned.

"I know, but I made good on one deal whilst breaking another promise."

"What promise, and what is this deal I keep hearing about?" He asked.

"The unspoken promise I made about not letting you face the firing squad alone."

"Yeah, well when the firing squad is armed with guns that shoot non-existent bullets, they look more intimidating than they actually are," Eric said continuing in an understanding tone once again.

"You might change that opinion when you meet my father."

A panicked expression leapt across his face.

"I said might," Nell added hastily, "I only have my sister's several experiences only one of them turned out well, and it's good that it did because unbeknownst to the rest of the family, they were already engaged."

"How did you know about their engagement?" Eric asked with his curiosity making an appearance.

"A sister's bond can never be broken, they either hate each other, or are inseparable. And we were, until she went to college and left me alone freshman year."

Eric nodded his head, "Umm, Nell,"

"Yeah."

"With this so called deal you seem to have made with the rest of your family, I figure that we're going to be a topic of conversation. And that we need something like a…"

"Like a history," Nell added turning away from Eric to open the curtains, "well, it's not like we don't have one," she muttered under her breath.

"It just needs to be something to tell the rest of your family," Eric said giving her the opportunity to choose what she wanted her family to know and what she didn't.

"Well, maybe we should try and keep it as close to the truth as possible. It would just make it easier than if we came up with a story and then someone asked a question that we didn't cover, and even though we sit up in Ops and we watch Kensi and Deeks, and Callen and Sam pick and choose covers on the fly, I don't want to have to be thinking constantly trying to remember what we have and haven't told them," Nell said keeping her face towards the window, not wanting to risk Eric picking out her real intent.

"How close to the truth do we want it to be?"

Nell turned around from the window, leaning on her elbows that rested against the window sill. She eyed him carefully for a minute, taking in his every glance towards another place. She finally responded with, "I don't know Beale,"- taking her arms off of the window sill she walked over to him, being careful not to break their line of eye sight. She stopped standing very close to him; rose onto her toes and whispered close to his ear, "How close to the truth do you want it to be?"

Her sudden boldness startled him, as did their proximity and her breath that brushed past his cheek. Neither of them said anything and they kept their eyes locked until the last minute when she broke eye contact and stared at the door. Eric turned to follow her line of slight to underneath the door. In between the door and the floor on the other side there was a shadow. It could have been from a hand, it could have been from a foot. The shadow was small meaning that it wasn't one of her brothers or sisters standing outside the door, it was most likely someone from the next generation listening with a glass against the door.

"Just go with it," Nell whispered so that only Eric would hear.

"Okay," he agreed.

"If you want to know about the deal, I'll tell you," Nell said returning to speak at a normal volume.

"How much do you plan on telling me?" he challenged.

Intrigued and waiting for her to answer he took a step closer restabilising their unbreakable eye contact.

"It depends, how much do you want to know?" She asked taking a step closer as well.

"Well, I would feel really guilty if what you tell me causes half of your family to have to cash up at the dinner table," Eric replied with a glint in his eye.

"It would be their loss," Nell replied with a mischievous half smirk, "I mean they place numerous bets on family happenings all the time, but this time I have got no idea how it will turn out."

"But, you're the one that has control over whether you tell me or not."

"Yeah, the thing is I still have no idea whether I want to tell you or not."

"And why is that Miss Jones?"

"Because if my siblings are betting that I won't tell you then I will tell you and if they are betting that I will tell then I won't," she explained before adding, "Mr Beale," as an afterthought.

"Well from your sister's reaction earlier I assume that she thought that you would tell me."

Nell's eyes flicked ever so quickly towards the underside of the door to find that the shadow had disappeared.

"Or it could have been from excitement that she would beat the rest of the betting family because she was right."

"It's a possibility," Eric admitted, "so who do you think will win?"

"Well if the past is anything to judge from I would say that Liam has a pretty good chance of being right. He is my eldest brother and Lucy's father he always seems to know where to put his money, but really only time will tell who will be buying drinks on New Years Eve," Nell said.

Lucy was long gone, probably off advising people of if they should 'forget' where they placed money in the first place, and if that happened would cause much controversy at the dinner table and it would all be fun and accusations. Eric didn't know that Lucy was gone, and that was Nell's biggest advantage. She could keep 'playing-it-out' even though the need for the scene was long over.

"My mum used to be one of the types who didn't like to be judged and she thought that she was being judged because she hadn't married off all of her children a few years ago. So last time I came back she arranged for me to meet this guy. She practically set me up on a date with him and paid him to kiss me at midnight on New Years Eve. I think she thought I would be upset if didn't have someone to kiss at midnight that year, because for the few previous years I had someone. I also think that my mum felt sorry for me because the rest of the family had someone" Nell said, "But I wasn't at all happy with what she had done. It's not like he wasn't a nice guy, he just wasn't my type and I did not want my mum getting involved in my personal life-"

"What is your type?" Eric asked interrupting her monologue.

Ignoring his question she continued, "I paid for his taxi ride home and then I started talking to my mum. Apparently she wasn't worried about people judging her, she was worried about me never being able to find someone. So I made finding someone my New Years Resolution. That was also partly the deal I made, it was amended slightly last year when I skyped and spoke with them. That is the part of the deal that I can tell you, the other part. Well, you did say you didn't want people out-of-pocket."

"I did say that didn't I?"

"Yes, I believe you did," Nell said, slowly interlacing her fingers with his as she drew nearer to him. She was in the middle of an internal debate over whether to kiss him or not. She wanted to, that she knew. What she didn't know was whether or not he wanted her to kiss him. He hadn't pulled away from her under the mistletoe, but that had been ever so brief that she wasn't sure it counted, he hadn't had time to react. She also knew that if he had of by some chance had feelings for her then, that a lot can change in two years.

'Stop contemplating and kiss him' a voice in her head screamed at her.

She decided to listen to her instincts and the voice in the back of her head that was drowning her debate.

"Nell?" A voice called accompanying a knock on the door.

Still debating whether to risk it with someone outside the door, she didn't tear her eyes from Eric's as she returned her reply.

"Nell, your father's home-" She literally leapt to the door and opened it to reveal her mum standing outside it, "and he's just as curious as everyone else to meet Eric."

Mentally Nell rolled her eyes, Eric had gotten more attention in this short time than Matthew Mcconaughey got at his wedding. Nell walked out of the room and walked with excitement towards her dad. He encased her in an embrace and shook her slightly side to side. She pulled back and her overjoyed expression faltered for a minute when she realised that she had –again, walked out in the middle of a moment. Leaving Eric –again, in a confused state of mind, probably disappointed or pissed off. Because now that she had made up her mind about kissing him she knew that she was currently feeling both disappointed because it had taken her too long to make her decision, and pissed off because once she had her mother had picked the perfect time to make an entrance.

"What is it Nelly?" her father asked.

She looked down the hallway and knew that on the other side of the kitchen there was someone she needed. Turning back around she took a deep breath and let a genuine smile hide her nerves.

"There is someone I want you to meet," she said as her smile grew, she turned her head back to look down the hallway and hollered loud and clear-

"BEALE!"

 **A/N- Let me know what you thought and if you want a continuation. Please leave a review.** **J**

 **Also check out my YouTube channel with Neric and Densi fanvids, my channel is called SomethingAlongTheLinesOf...**


	2. Chapter 2- Interrogations

**Chapter 2-I** **nterrogations**

 **A/N- Not much of an author's note, but did anyone else like the '** ** _Tap- Off_** **' as much as I did, I thought it was awesome. I can't wait for the season 7 premiere, and the Eric/Nell Renissance Fair scene, if you don't know what I'm talking about watch the NCIS: Los Angeles PaleyFest interview here: watch?v=VIiq38nThC0** **it is absolutely hilarious.**

 **I hope you all find this chapter less confusing than the last.**

 **Thank you all for the reviews on the last chapter, I would love it if I got a large response like that again.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recogniasable characters in this story, they are property of Shane Brennan and CBS.**

 **Please R &R ****J**

Eric walked out through the kitchen trying to get over a mild panic attack, and trying to seem perfectly calm, but if he was perfectly calm would that make him look fake and therefore their relationship. So maybe it was good for him to look a little nervous, but how nervous is a little nervous because if he allowed himself to be a little nervous would he unintentionally overdo it….? Or should he just try and plough through and hope to make it out alive?

He continued down the hallway and followed the voices into the living room which seemed to be the centre of all the activity, thankfully this time everyone had gotten over his presence or had been scolded by someone with higher power to save it for dinner. Either way he was calmer without the extra unwanted attention.

He spotted Nell and a man whom he assumed to be her father standing alone in a corner near the Christmas tree, deep in a conversation of light topic. He made his way over. Nell turned around to face him before he even said anything. She was smiling a horizon, and she looked so happy. She grabbed Eric's hand and then turned back to face her father without her smile faltering. Her father was not as short as his wife but he wasn't as tall as the rest of the family either.

"Young man, your name is Eric, correct?" Her father asked sternly.

"Yes," he answered.

 _Easy question._

"And what intentions do you have?"

 _Not so easy question._

Eric had been expecting to get this speech from her father, he had even thought through some questions and answers, but for this one he drew up short.

"Um, sorry," he cleared his throat, "intentions?" Eric stumbled.

"What intentions do you have with my daughter?"

"Um, I'm not sure."

He looked at Eric, with a glare like stare.

 _That was not the right answer._

 _And Eric knew it._

"You don't know your own intentions?" Her father continued in a manner that reminded him of a marine scolding the lower ranks. Eric looked at his shoes, "when a man courts a woman they always have intentions. I was your age once and I had intentions, you should also."

Pulling every last piece of himself from the shattered mess on the floor that he had become he looked back up at Nell's father. He hoped that his arms weren't shaking, but he really couldn't tell because he wasn't focused on them but the man in front of him, Eric hoped that he looked calm and honest. Every piece of him portrayed a calm manner save his eyes, they betrayed him. There was a twinge of fear in them, that he hoped wasn't too noticeable to anyone else.

"I have no long term plans, if that's what you're asking. It's only been 7 months, but I promise you that although because I'm not very athletic that I cannot guarantee to be able protect her from harm, I can promise you that no harm done to her would ever come from me. Her mind very much like herself is beautiful, and…" he trailed off suddenly aware that Nell was there too, "Nell is special and I will only ever have the best intentions of her," Eric finished, looking her father in the eyes the whole time- for the most part.

"Is that so?" he questioned mellowing slightly.

"Yes," Eric replied.

"I see that you left it at just 'yes' you didn't say 'yes sir',"

"Umm," Eric faltered, "would have you preferred 'yes sir'?"

"Good god no! That makes me sound old," he said breaking his carefully planned façade, "I'm glad you left it off, it was just an observation," he said with a chuckle and he clapped Eric on the back, "I'm Phillip," he offered his hand, "please don't call me Phil," he added as if on second thought as they shook hands.

"I have just one more quick question," Phillip started.

 _Oh god no, please let it not be anything more than what had just been said._

"Tell me," he asked, "why do my daughters always bring home tall men?"

He calmed significantly.

"I don't know, Nell any thoughts?" He asked looking at her

She laughed softly as if to say: ' _you'll pay_ when Eric directed the spotlight on her, "When you're this short it isn't that hard to find a guy that is taller than you."

"Ah, but good things come in small packages, Nelly," he reminded her.

' _They really do,'_ Eric thought to himself, looking at Nell.

"Yeah, yeah," she said trying to shake off the complement.

"Good now that that is cleared up, Eric, what do you know about cars?" He asked with a curious eye.

"Not much, although I do have a friend that was restoring a Dodge Challenger and then it got stolen. He asked me to help him look for it and when I found it, sadly it was pretty much destroyed," Eric said sharing a knowing look with Nell because they both knew what really happened with Sam and his Challenger.

"That must have stung a lot," Phillip said sympathising.

"Yeah, he took it pretty badly."

"Even though you're not much of a cars man do you mind if I show you the 1960's Shelby Mustang that I've been restoring since Nell was about three years old?"

"Oh dear," Eric heard Nell mutter tiredly.

"Sure," Eric said.

Phillip beckoned for Eric to follow, he walked out of the living room and back out into the hallway. Bypassing the front door he opened another and illuminated the room with the flick of a switch. Inside there was the restored shell of a 1960's Shelby Mustang and two workbenches either side filled with tools and littered with tiny pieces of car shrapnel.

Nell who had trailed behind them entered the garage to stand with Eric as her Dad inspected the car as though it was finished.

"Does your Dad know about the deal?" Eric asked in a whispered voice.

"You see when I first made the deal only my Mum and Karmin knew but then last Christmas when I was talking to them, I found out that someone had leaked it, and since then I have used a the deductive skills I have to figure out who knows, who doesn't and which side of the fence they're on," Nell explained.

"I love this car, but I am so disappointed that it has taken me more than twenty years to restore just the frame," Phillip said interrupting their conversation.

"Dad, you know that if you want something to be done right that it takes time and effort," Nell said.

"Without being a car person, it looks like you've put lots of time and effort into it and even though it's taken you a long time to do-"

"It's been worth it, because it looks fantastic, and you have poured your heart into fixing it up," Nell reassured.

"Everything that looks good takes time. Like there was one paper that I was writing in high school for my finals, I think I re-wrote it about five times-"

"But in the end it earned you more than enough marks to get a passing grade."

"Well of course I did, I wouldn't have left it had of-"

"If you weren't happy with it?" Eric suggested as her ending.

"Do you two do that all the time?'

"Do what?" Nell asked.

"Finish each other's sentences."

' _How close do you want it to be?'_ Nell's voice ringed in his head making him consciously aware of their previous conversation.

"Yes," Eric answered in one word.

"Ahhhh," Phillip said in acknowledgement before walking past them and out of the garage.

"Come on," Nell said tugging on Eric's hand as she went to leave as well.

He didn't move, "What were you saying before about the deal and your Dad?"

"I'm not really sure about him," Nell continued, "but I figure that whether he knows about it or not he will be the mediator," She said getting no response from him she included, "I mean someone has to stop my Mum from strangling my aunty each year," she added on a joking note.

Still no reaction.

She turned to face him, "Eric, is everything okay?"

His expression was clouded over as though he was in deep thought.

She followed his eye line to a family photo that her Dad had pinned up on the corkboard. It was an old photo, Nell must have not been much older than thirteen making her oldest brother, Liam just shy of his twentieth birthday. But Eric's expression showed that it was not the photo that he was caught up in, but his own past and memories.

 _Flashback_

 _"_ _Why do you decide that now is the time to leave and pursue your career?" Eric asked, "aren't you even going to stay for the funeral?"_

 _"_ _Eric. I'm sorry. But I can't," Annie quietly argued trying not to let anymore tears spill out._

 _"_ _Mum died less than half a year ago, and Grace just overdosed on cocaine. You can't leave now."_

 _"_ _I have to."_

 _"_ _Mum is gone she's never coming back. We can't change that. Grace was depressed long before Mum passed. That's on us for not noticing. But if you leave now with interests of pursuing your career. That's more blame on Dad's shoulders. You know that he blames himself for Grace and you know that he blames himself for Mum even though it was out of his control," Eric said sternly, he hardly ever- never raised his voice let alone at his family but now they were being caved in by loss and neither of them were thinking clearly._

 _Annie had stopped trying to control herself, and her brother's fit wasn't helping._

 _"_ _You don't need to inform me on the happenings of the past year, I know what's happened, because in case you forgot I'M STILL HERE!" she yelled, letting her well managed temper snap, "I AM STILL A PART OF THIS FAMILY. BUT THIS FAMILY IS NOT MY ENTRIE LIFE," She spluttered out angrily, and taking a breath before continuing, "I HAVE DREAMS, AND WHILST THE REST OF MY FAMILY IS SITTING AROUND WATCHING PEOPLE DIE. I AM GOING TO LIVE MY LIFE BEFORE I TURN OUT SCREWED UP BY THE REST OF YOU!" she stopped and composed herself, "wait until morning to tell Dad."_

 _"_ _Annie- wait," Eric pleaded._

 _"_ _I can't Eric," she said through tears, "I can't stay in a place where there is so much death. I'm getting away before I end up like Mum, and like Grace."_

 _"_ _You are already like them, you're leaving us," Eric stated._

 _"_ _But this time you're getting a goodbye."_

"Eric," Nell said, "Beale are you still in there?"

Nell's sharp voice pulled him out of his thoughts, "Sorry, what were you saying?"

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I'm just tired. Didn't get much sleep on the flight and meeting everyone has been exhausting," he said, "but not like a bad type of exhausting, it's just been really over whelming but everyone is great."

"I know. You get used to it," Nell reassured.

"I'm just a little dizzy. I think I'm going to lie down,"

Nell checked her watch, "you've got about two hours before dinner."

"Am I allowed to have a sleep before dinner," he said attempting humour.

She gave a feeble laugh at his attempt, "Sure."

Eric walked back out through the house until he reached the kitchen where he got stopped by Felicity.

"Did Phillip show you the car?" She asked.

"He did, it's just unfortunate that I'm not really into cars," he said with an awkward laugh.

"Take it from me because he'll never tell you, it's probably as much of an approval that you'll get," she said.

The comment alone had been enough to completely calm his nerves he had succeeded in pushing below the surface.

"We all know that you and Nell met at work, but what kind of work do you do?" Felicity asked.

"I am a Photo Journalist," Eric stated before elaborating, "Nell was helping a colleague with an article that she was writing. I was covering the photos for it and when I got behind she was there to constantly remind me of the deadline," Eric said trying to keep it as close to the truth as he possibly could, "and she also finished all of my sentences," he added lightly, remembering the now comforting trait that once drove him crazy.

Felicity smiled, "She got that from always having to fight with her older siblings to get a word in. She learned that if she butted into the middle of a conversation, finished the point that the person was making and continued she could just plough on through with her story."

Eric laughed because it was weird how clearly he could imagine a nine- year-old Nell picking arguments against her older siblings, "That sounds like her," Eric commented.

"Well does wearing a pink tutu at a ballet concert sound like her?"

"I remember someone mentioning that. I think it was Betty, maybe. I can't remember, but someone mentioned that she did two years of ballet before she stopped."

"But did they tell you that a year later she started tap?"

Eric's eyes sparked with interest, "No," he spoke, "they did not."

"She loved tap, she still does as far as I know."

"Nell never mentioned it," he replied.

"I never mentioned what?" Nell asked startling Eric, but not her mother, "are you dishing out my dirty secrets?" she asked accusingly turning to her mum whom smiled mischievously, "and you, I thought you said you were going to lie down," she said turning her attention back to Eric squaring him with a mock accusing glare.

"I was," he started, "and then I started talking to your mum," he said.

"Well if you're still feeling like you need to lie down or sleep I would take your chance now whilst you have it," Nell recommended before explaining, "dinner will be busy."

"Speaking of dinner," Felicity said turning to Nell, "do you still wat to help later?"

"Of course," she replied.

Eric turned and headed for the guest bedroom. He pulled off his shoes and laid on one half of the bed and closed his eyes. He was getting light-headed and dizzy from exhaustion.

Once Eric left Nell to go and lie down she flittered between family members catching up on the happenings of the last year. Her sister had gotten a new job after previously being unemployed for two years, she was working as a shop assistant in a bookstore, but she claimed that it was just a temporary position. Lucy's Guinea Pigs had given birth to a group of Guinea Pigs. She had named all of them after characters in her favourite book series. And then of course there were more questions about Eric; hobbies, weird traits, where he went to college, what he studied in college and everything in between- within reason of course.

She managed to drag herself away from all the conversation and all the questions when her mum finally dragged her away claiming that she was needed to help prepare dinner, which was actually the truth. As they got into the kitchen Nell closed the door behind them.

"Thank you," Nell said, "because that is my definition of over-whelming."

Felicity laughed, shaking her head as she did so, "You have only yourself to blame. You know that right honey?"

"Me? Why is my nosey family my fault?" Nell asked exasperatedly.

"Well, our nosey family is not your fault," Felicity explained putting emphasis, "that will probably never change," she said with a light laugh, "you are the cause of their expansive prying." She looked slightly amused as she spoke. Amused because her daughter's IQ was way over average and she still had to point out the obvious to her at times.

"So our family is prying because a guy that I spoke briefly about on my last visit and mentioned in other dispersed conversations has come home with me. Or are you trying to find out more about his knowledge of the deal so that you know whether to put a bet in at all?"

"Yes and it's your fault because for the first time in a while you mentioned someone whom to us sounded like a love interest, but then nothing else. It's like ending a book with a cliff hanger, you know that one day you'll get more information, but you want that day to be today. You told us barely anything about him and we all wanted more and since your last visit the questions have been building up," she explained, "and then this year you both show up and the floodgates opened."

"Well let's just save it for dinner shall we?"

"I can get everybody else to stop, but I am your mother and I'm playing that card because I too want answers."

"Okay," Nell replied giving in, and she turned the tap to warm and washed her hands, "Ask away."

Her mum stayed quiet as if they were playing a game of 'Twenty Questions' and she had to pick the most important questions off the list. She was reorganising entire ideas in her head into five word questions that jumped directly to the point and that made an answer easier. Hopefully in theory.

It was the same method that she had used whenever questioning Nell and her brother and sisters. It was an evil and vicious method, but none the less effective.

"Is it genuine?" Felicity asked as she grabbed a bundle of vegetables and a knife, "or is this just some way to make everyone else believe that you made good on the deal?"  
"Can we just leave the deal out of this," Nell said, "whether a certain group of family members gets to take money off another group does not concern me. I know that ultimately what I tell or don't tell Eric decides that but if you're asking if this is genuine then the answer is yes. He doesn't know- or at least didn't know about the deal until Karmin brought it up," Nell concluded, until adding, "And I didn't tell Eric about the deal because I didn't want him to feel like I was intentionally hanging it over his head."  
"So even though you decided to invite him home for Christmas you gave him no warning about what you'd told or not told us about him?"  
"It was a very hastily made decision," Nell replied.  
"You prefer your head on the chopping block instead of his?"  
"Of course I do, it's my family and I have had many years of practice dealing with them," Nell said placing the chopped vegetables onto a tray.  
"You say that as though you've had your head on the chopping block for him before," Felicity said watching her daughter closely.

Nell turned slowly back to the vegetables. Her lack of response was probably not working in her favour. Even though-technically- she never had been in danger in favour of saving Eric, she still couldn't keep a calm face. With the memories of the Kill House incident and Adam Brown in the boat shed. She had still put her head on the chopping block, but so had he. He had with his cover a few years back as Gary Clay and his collision with frelting, or even very recently with Carl Brown and the fact that he had been taken hostage by the elusive mole. Yes, at one time or another they had both had their heads on chopping blocks, but never once to save the other. Thankfully that was more of Sam, Callen, Kensi and Deeks's area.  
But she still didn't want her mum asking any questions that could lead to the truth. So Nell kept he head down and chopped vegetables.  
"Well maybe not for him, but certainly for a danger much greater than your family."

"And you have become Deductionist since when?" Nell asked.

"Since I know my children?" She responded. Nell mentally rolled her eyes, her mum was a big fan of playing the 'I know my children' card, but now she put down her vegetables and turned to her daughter, "the first love is the greatest, and everyone gets caught up in the journey. You have a brilliant mind, so use it and don't let him be the cause of you doing something stupid."

"Mum, I have always made my own decisions whether they were the right decisions or not they were made by me. But as most people do I learnt from my mistakes," Nell said making her case, "I moved to another city and I haven't made a bad or off-putting decision the entire time, and what brought this on? I have never had a bad track record before?"

"You seem different since you've been back and I hope that he has nothing to do with it," she said as a warning.

Nell couldn't believe what she was hearing, there was no way in hell that Eric was going to cause her to make a mistake. And he couldn't actually be classified as a mistake because they weren't actually together, and if anything she would quite possibly do more harm to him. Not that she'd tell her mum that, she didn't need something else that could be added to the list titled 'differences in Nell since she moved to Los Angeles'.

Keeping a calm exterior because they had already had one argument this afternoon/evening and she didn't want another. The previous argument was more of a fun competition, whereas this one would not be so civil and although the rest of the family that was lingering in the living room would probably not hear she couldn't trust whether Eric was asleep and if he was if he would sleep through their yelling.

"Eric is harmless," Nell stated, "he may be a photo journalist, but once he has taken the photos he spends his remaining work hours sitting in the office shifting through candid shots of celebrities, nature, and testing and trialling filters and effects," her mum looked back at the scraps on her chopping board and left her hair covering her face, "and if you are worried that the reason I didn't share information about him last time was because I didn't think you or Dad would approve of him, then you're wrong. I didn't tell you about him last time because we weren't together yet and in case something happened that spiralled in the opposite direction I didn't want to give much away. I hoped that you would just let it be, but instead it had quite the opposite effect. I didn't want to tell anyone anything before I knew my own feelings."

When she looked back to her mum she saw that she had her head down and she was shaking ever so slightly.

"Mum, are you okay?"

A sound like a painful choked laugh came from her mum.

"Are you okay?"

Fully fledged laughter sounded from her mum, and all previous worry left Nell, it was replaced with frustration.

The laughter continued.

"Mum!" Nell scolded.

She looked at Nell, "If someone asks you a personal question they aren't going to get a straight answer. Even me and your siblings, therefore I have to resort to other methods," she replied.

"Well it works," Nell replied bitterly.

"He is a good guy Nell, you're both lucky."

 _If it was real we would be lucky._

Dinner that night, as promised was an eventful scene, and Nell and Eric spent more time speaking than they did eating because as soon as they answered one question someone else spoke asking another question, but luckily their skills of jumping into the middle of each other's sentences came into play. Her mum's cousins who had just came for dinner had the most questions, but they dragged it on throughout all dinner, and just when they thought they had finished because they had asked a normal question like: 'Can you pass the pepper please,' or they averted their attention to someone else- they had more.

"You seem," Ellyn started, "to be much of gentleman."

"Thank you," Eric said trying to repress the lingering blush on his cheeks.

"And I can't help but wonder if that has ever attracted any other long-term partners?" She quizzed.

"Are you asking Eric about his past relationships?" Nell asked.

"Yes," Ellyn replied.

Eric really wanted to tell her that it was none of her business, but really he had only had one other relationship- only one relationship because- as he had to remind himself- he and Nell weren't actually an item.

"Um," Eric hesitated, unsure of how to start, "the only other long- term relationship I had was with a friend in college, Jessica. We were together for about two years. We had planned to go out for a night just to get away from the stress of our final exams and so I went to get her, but she didn't answer the door. Her roommate Rebecca did, and she was crying. Jessica had been stressing about her finals and I guess that it had just gotten too much for her. She had locked herself in the bathroom and refused to let Rebecca in, when we got through the door we found her shooting up heroin to deal with her stresses. I left her."

The table was mostly quiet, Nell's hand found Eric's under the table and gave it a reassuring squezze.

"Rebecca found me a few weeks before graduation and she told me that Jessica was okay," Eric said trying to lighten the mood. They had asked the question and he had given them the answer and hopefully a lesson on not prying into private lives.

One of the other cousins must have noticed his unease and changed the topic.

"What about your family?" Lilyana asked.

 _If only you knew that this was opening more wounds._

"My mother passed away in '89' ," He said, feeling Nell's fingers intertwine with his, "my twin sister Grace, then passed not much more than six months later from a cocaine overdose. She hadn't dealt with Mum's death well, or at all, and then after that my older sister Annie left to pursue her career as a journalist. She sends me letters often, and she's doing really well. My dad is a computer programmer and lives in LA."

"I'm sorry about your sister and mother, but the rest of them sound nice," Lilyana replied.

"It is nice," Eric lied, because it was anything but.

Phillip who had returned from the kitchen was holding the newspaper in his hands.

"That's ridiculous," Phillip said startling the entire table and providing a distraction from Eric, giving him a chance to drop his façade for a minute.

"What is it Phillip?" Felicity asked.

"Has anyone read the headlines?" he asked.

Everyone shook their heads, "the Taliban member who was arrested a few weeks ago is being released."

"He cooperated with the federal agents didn't he?" Someone asked.

"Yeah," Eric replied, "he gave up the location and names of the high ranking members."

 _Crap… That was classified._

Nell looked at him with a well covered, but panicked expression. She too must have noticed the slip up.

"Really, they don't give any reason for releasing him in here," he said in awe, before replacing it with distrustful interest, "how do you know that?"

Nell looked at her mum, with pleading eyes.

"When everyone's finshed could they please leave their plates in the kitchen," she interrupted.

"Yeah, mum," Blake started, "we are heading off we want to get the kids in bed because they will all be up early tomorrow."

"Okay."

The buzz started again as relatives bid each other farewell. Nell took the distraction as a window of opportunity and dragged Eric into the kitchen.

"How good is your Dad's memory?"

"Let's hope he doesn't remember, or we come up with a really good story by tomorrow morning, or-"

''Or we can kiss our jobs goodbye," Eric finshed.

"But let's try and not think about that now because they might not press the issue or they'll forget. So don't stress," she said walking through the kitchen and to the guest bedroom.

Even with her words he still looked on edge, she opened the door and they both went in. She opened up her suitcase, and started rummaging through it only to look up at a fidgeting Eric, "Wolfram."

"Yes," he replied.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm just fidgety," he responded.

"Yeah, well. You did good today with all of the questions."

"So did you," he replied.

She gathered a few things from her bag and laid them on the bed.

"Nell?"

"Yes."

"Do you think they bought it?"

"Bought what?"

"Us."

She moved over to stand in front of him, looked him in the eye and placed a lingering kiss on his lips, "Of course," she said with a cheeky smile on her face, "but now I'm going to take a shower and then I'm going to bed because I, unlike you didn't get any sleep this afternoon."

She picked up her stuff from the bed, walked into the bathroom and started the shower.

 **A/N- It could be a while until my next chapter is posted because I still only have very rough ideas for it, but that said it is school holidays for me and things might move quicker. I have also uploaded another Neric fanvid on youtube. And for all who don't know my channel name is SomethingAlongTheLinesOf…**

 **Please review.**


	3. Technically, Chocolate is a Food

**Chapter 3- Technically, Chocolate is a Food**

 **A/N- Thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed and also to two readers that were my main motivation to write this- even when it was eleven thirty at night. Knowing that people like, or even don't like what I'm writing helps me massively in developing my skills, so please leave a review.**

 **Please note that I could not be bothered editing this chapter and that spell check is being painful, so please ignore spelling and grammar errors.**

 **TheAlphabetSong xx**

 **Disclaimer: I own none of the recognisable characters.**

The dull light lingering on the outskirts of the curtains was the final excuse his mind needed to pull his body from its slumber. Opening his eyes he forced them to focus on the analogue clock on the wall in front of him. Having absolutely no success he reached around for his glasses on the bed side table where he had remembered leaving them the night before. Putting them on removed the haze from the numbers, it was quarter past eight and very bleak looking outside and if he wasn't mistaking snowing. Well he definitely wasn't in LA. Averting his eyes from the window he turned his head, Nell was awaking and reading.

"Good morning," Eric said with a tinge of sleep escaping as well.

Nell looked up from her book, "Hey, I didn't realise you were awake."

"Good book?" he asked, looking at the cover and not recognising it.

"Yeah, I snuck into my old bedroom last night it's at the far end of the living room. There is a box of books that I forgot to take with me when I moved to LA, this was one of them. It's called _Picnic at Hanging Rock_ by Joan Linsday. It's a mystery book set in Australia," she explained.

"Mysterious," Eric replied, "I haven't heard of it."

"Yeah, a school group go to this place in the Australian bush. Three students and one teacher climb this rock that's there. They go missing, only one returns and she has no clue as to what happened. As I said, it's a mystery."

"Yeah."

Nell closed her book and let it rest at the end of the bed. She lazily raked her hand through her hair that had a horrid case of bed head.

"I'm sorry about yesterday, and my prying family," she said, surprising him with the change in topic, "If I had of thought everything through before I asked you instead of when I reached the front door then I would've told you, but profiling terrorists is easier than profiling my unpredictable family. On the plus side since they paid so much attention to you yesterday it means that they won't ask you questions today, and it means that they like you, well for the most part. My cousins, Lilyana and Ellyn's families are a little eccentric, and generally very un-opinionated, hence them having no part in the deal. They hate the idea of it, they think it's stupid."

"I could see how they could think that staying out of it was best," Eric said.

"Yeah, if I wasn't in the centre of it, yes I would still be involved, but I wouldn't necessarily think that it was the best way to fix a problem."

Eric knew better than to ask what problem, because in his mind it would put Nell in an awkward situation, whilst trying to phrase an answer. But the deal wasn't entirely her fault so, he wasn't going to put her through that.

"Now mum normally does presents at quarter to nine, but it depends what time Blake and his family get here, because one of his youngest will most likely throw a tantrum if we start without them," Nell said informing Eric, "but I doubt that Mum would ever start without everyone being here."

"It's been a while since I've had a Christmas with family, and even when I did we didn't have traditions like this," Eric said.

Nell turned to look at him with a quizzical expression.

"After my mum passed away, a few years later my father remarried. If the rest of my family abandoning us had been the orientation, she was the complication," Nell noticed that he had the faraway glance again, his eyes looked completely frosted over, "she makes Trunchbull in Matilda seem like the perfect person. She was strict as hell and as suffocating as smoke."

Nell moved over closer to him feeling that at this point actions spoke louder than words.

"You were the one who asked me how close to the truth I wanted it to be, and since I lied to the rest of your family I figured you should know," he said solemnly.

"I- um," Nell stumbled looking down into her lap, at a loss for words she drew up blank.

Eric looked back at her with a sense of humour in his eyes, "You know how I fixed the problem?" he asked in a light tone.

"What did you do?"

"I bought a lock for my bedroom door."

Nell shared a small laugh at his attempt at lightening the mood.

"I'm going to get coffee, do you want some?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you."

"Okay," she said standing, "I'll be back in a minute," she said walking out the door.

When she came back in minutes later to a fully dressed Eric she said that her mum had sent her to rally the troops. After Eric pulled some socks on he joined her and some of her family in the living room by the tree.

He stood beside Nell atop her head was a red and white Santa Hat, most other family members had something Christmasy on. When she noticed his arrival she handed him his coffee, "Coffee: black, sugar: brown," she said handing it to him.

"Thanks," he smiled knowingly at what words had previously come after that.

 _'_ _Coffee: black, Sugar: brown, brewed not stewed. And Oreos- If you want them.'_

"Good morning, Eric," Phillip greeted.

"Good morning," he replied.

Felicity was standing at the front of the cluster and she motioned for everyone to sit down, it was mainly for the kids, but in attempts of being a semi responsible adult he followed everyone else who sat down, leaving only Felicity standing. He felt like he was a seven year old sitting in a classroom.

"Are we missing anyone?" Felicity asked.

"No, we're not," Phillip replied.

Felicity sat down after that and picked up her own coffee, took a sip and spoke, "Okay Lucy, if you still want to play Santa this year you can start."

Lucy, as eager as ever, stood up and circled the tree looking for a specific gift, finding it she handed it out to the name of whom was on it before returning to the tree. Picking out a present at random this time. A squishy looking one she called out "Think fast!" and threw it at her younger brother who caught it. He tore the wrapping paper off and pulled out an inflated pillow.

"Thanks Luce," he said sarcastically.

"It's called revenge," she viciously replied before turning back to the tree.

"They used to get quality presents for each other, and then I think one year her brother Adian forgot and so he gave her a mango from the fruit bowl and then it became a competition of stupidest Christmas presents," Nell explained to Eric, "and now it's just sad, because it keeps getting worse," she finished dragging out the last syllable as she saw Lucy holding a present out for Eric.

"For me?" he asked.

She nodded, handed him the package and headed back to the tree. He turned his head towards Nell.

"Open it," she said.

"Last time you said that, it was an elf costume," Eric said, hesitantly holding the parcel.

"I promise that it's less humiliating than that," Nell replied with a small blush creeping from her ears forward.

Eric looked the package over. It was probably one of the strangest looking gifts he'd received; it was a peculiar shape wrapped in three different kinds of paper, and red and green ribbon. Turning it upside down he started prying the sticky tape that held the ribbons in place. There must have been five or so layers of tape just holding the ribbons to the three different types of paper. When he finally worked the sticky tape off, he laid it and the ribbon down in a neat pile in front of him.

"I'm not Houdini," Eric stated.

"Wasn't he a master of getting out of things and not into them?" Nell queried.

"Why did you wrap it in so many layers?" He asked tiredly.

"What fun is the prize if you don't have to work for it," she replied mischievously.

After eventually prying the sticky tape of the wrapping paper he removed all five layers of green, red and gold wrapping paper to reveal an oddly shaped cardboard box. He pulled the tabs out from the bottom of the box and opened it. He carefully removed the protective paper, underneath there was an elf hat with antlers attached to it.

"I thought you said that it was less humiliating than an elf costume."

"Well, it can't be more humiliating than the entire costume is if its only a hat, which in fact is the one item you did agree to wear," she replied making an argument convincing enough to make him put the hat on.

Lucy walked over and handed Nell a gift.

"Merry Christmas," she said looking at Nell, "I like your hat," she said as she turned to Eric.

"Thanks."

Nell's present thankfully wasn't wrapped in five layers of wrapping paper and didn't have a thousand pieces of sticky tape holding it together, therefore making it a lot easier to open. She received a small canvas that had a collage of her family printed on it.

She went over to her mum, who by now had moved to standing over by the window and was watching the snow pile up in the driveway.

"Thank you," she said holding up the canvas.

"You like it?"

"Of course I like it, here and LA seem like two completely different worlds, I need a little bit of home in LA," she said hugging Felicity.

"Los Angeles is your home now," Felicity said, "putting down roots," she continued with a glance towards Eric and his elf antler hat, "that's what makes a place your home."

"Thanks mum," Nell said again.

"It was a gift from all of us- your siblings and your dad, we figured that since you're so caught up with our job all the time and rarely can come home we thought that you needed a little something."

"It's great," she complemented again.

"I'm glad you like it."

Nell smiled at her mum once more before leaving and walking back over to where Eric was previously sitting only to find him gone. She wandered back through the house, double checking each room on the way to the guest bedroom. She knocked on the door before entering just to be on the safe side in case he was changing or something, but before her hand connected with the door it opened.

"Hey Nell."

"Hi, why are you slinking back here."

"Slinking? No, no I wasn't slinking."

"Then what were you doing?"

"Me, I um, I was just…"

"Eric?"

"I was going to give this to you later, but I guess I was caught in the crime so…" he trailed off again.

"Eric," she insisted more forcefully grabbing one of his fidgeting hands and sandwiching it between hers, "tell me Beale," she said looking him dead straight in the eyes.

He caved.

He pulled his other hand out from behind his back. In it he held a rectangular black slender box, with a gift shop bought, stick-on red and green bow on top. He handed it to her.

"It's not anything like five layers of wrapping paper and six different coloured ribbons, but um..," he stumbled nervously, "Merry Christmas Nell."

"Thank you and Merry Christmas to you too, Eric," Nell said taking the top off her gift.

She paused.

"Nell is everything okay?" Eric asked.

She put the top back on the box and then extended her hand back out to Eric, who looked insulted.

"You were going to give it to me later," she explained, "therefore I'm not going to force you into breaking your plans."

"Oh, well um," he stuttered, "are you sure?"

"Yes," she said with a light laugh, "Yes, Eric I'm sure."

He nodded his head once with a smile before he turned around and walked back into the bedroom.

Nell walked back out into the living room to see that the majority of the presents were open, with the loot in one pile and the wrapping paper strewn all across the floor. Lucy came over to Nell again, this time with just a card, which was signed by all of the younger kids- or at least all of the ones that could write, saying how they were excited that she was back this year. Eric rejoined her in the living room by the tree as she was re-reading through all of the messages on the card. He peeked over her shoulder at the card she was reading, on it there were things written like: _'I'm glad that you're back'_ or _'Cold here. Sunny in LA. You'll miss it like we missed you. Welcome back.'_. They were the only two that really stood out, there were a lot of generic 'Merry Christmas's', ' _Yay! You're back'_ and even a few _'Welcome home's'_. Nell turned around when she felt warm breath on the back of her neck, from Eric who had, had to lean in closer to read some of the smaller print.

"Everyone seems happy that you're back," Eric commented.

" _I'm_ happy that _I'm_ back," Nell said.

"You're surrounded by all the people that love you."

She turned all the way around to look at him.

"Your family I mean," Eric quickly amended.

"I know that's what you mean."

"I know that's what I mean, what did you think I meant?"

"The question is what do you think, I think you meant," she said with a partly playful smile and partly one that gleamed with a challenge.

"And you wish you knew," he teased.

"So you were thinking something worth me thinking about."

Eric had no instant witty comeback, that was more of Deeks' thing.

"Nothing of your concern," he finally decided with.

"Can all of the kids please pick up the wrapping paper," Felicity asked causing the once quieter atmosphere to sky rocket.

Felicity made her way over to Nell and Eric.

"I am making pancakes for anyone who wants them, any takers?"

"Yes, please," they both said.

"Alright then I reccomend getting in quick before the carnivors devour all of them," she suggested.

"Right, okay," Nell said, as her mum walked off.

Felicity made sure that everyone over fourteen that wanted pancakes had gotten pancakes before she let the locusts raid them and the toppings. Eric watched all of the children raid the pancake pile and kept particular eye on the hand that kept poking up from below the bench grabbing a total of three pancakes keeping out of sight of the others. He smiled to himself remembering the mischief that him and his sisters got up to when they were still a whole family.

"Do you do anything on Christmas day?' Eric asked dribbling pools of maple syrup onto his three- storey stack of pancakes.

She had to think about it for a minute because she usually did something different each year in the day and then they would turn on all of the gas heaters and pull down the screens and had dinner on their back patio.

"Mostly it changes each year, but for some part of it I do my last minute Christmas shopping," Nell replied.

"Last minute. I have never known you to do anything last minute," Eric said with a tone of mock accusation.

 _'_ _Inviting you was last minute'_ she thought.

"Yes, I am mostly methodical, but Christmas is hard because I'm tragic at deciding on gifts for people," she replied honestly.

"At least you're not like Hetty," Eric said.

"Why would it be bad if I was like Hetty?" Nell asked accusingly.

"No, no that's not what I mean," Eric said backpedalling, "I mean that Hetty is a re-gifter. At least you actually buy presents and I doubt anyone would mind if they got their present later that day."

"That's true," Nell admitted, "but you can rest assured because I have plans other than last minute Christmas shopping today," she said before finishing off her first pancake and starting on her second.

"Alright, like what?"

She swallowed before answering, "Something like it's for me to know and for you to find out. Is there anything that you would like to do whilst we are out today?"

"No," he said after little thought, "Whatever you want to do is good."

"Okay," she said finishing off her pancakes, "I'm going to get changed and then we can gallivant across the city."

"Gallivant?" Eric asked, slightly confused at her choice of words.

She just laughed and threw a smile over her shoulder as she got up from the table.

About forty minutes later they left and since they hadn't driven there and Nell had politely declined her Mum's offer of letting them borrow her car they had to use public transport to make their way into the city. Nell still refused to tell Eric what they were doing. She had been very cryptic for the majority of the trip as to what they were doing, whereabouts they were going and he was also hopeless at trying to tease any more information about the deal out of her. They got into the city which was full of people milling around, all dressed in festive colours and warm clothes, unlike Eric who against all warning had still refused to wear long pants. His lack of long pants and abundance of scarves, jumpers, and a thick coat did not go unnoticed, needless to say that they got a lot of strange looks.

They made their way to what was normally a large park, sort of a down scale version of New York's Central Park. That today was lined with Market stalls filled with a whole variety of different chocolate covered desserts.

"Welcome," Nell said flinging her arms up in the air to indicate towards the stalls and park, "to the annual Christmas Chocolate Festival."

"Wow," Eric said in admiration of all hundreds of stalls.

"It used to be held in the Summer, but all the stalls would have to pack up at midday because the desserts would start to melt, or they'd run out of ice. So about a decade ago someone came up with the idea of running it in Winter instead, so they made it a holiday thing," Nell explained.

It was lucky for them that the snow that threatened to protrude the sky had held off, because that certainly would've put a damper on the festivities. The light snow that topped the trees resembled the icing sugar that was dusted on top of the chocolate coated wonders making the trees look almost ediable.

As they wondered through the endless swarms of people the temperature seemed to increase slightly because of the close knit crowd of people winding through the pathways of the stalls.

Nell grabbed his arm and dragged him off to one of the stalls. She picked up a piece of chocolate and handed it to him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Taste and you'll know."

He took a tentative bite of the unknown chocolate. It was good, it was really good. He took another bite of the chocolate. His eyes widened in shock as he tasted the flavour.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, "that is hot. What is that?" he asked in between coughs, "is that. Is that Chilli Chocolate?"

Nell didn't respond because the shop owner beat her to it.

"That is Chilli chocolate," he stated, "do you like it."

Eric was recovering from a coughing fit, "Um. There are very strong flavours. But it's not for me."

"Admittedly this chocolate is not for everyone. It's an acquired taste," Eric nodded in agreement, "What about you," he said turning to Nell.

"It's very nice. You can really taste the chilli, but its not so strong that you can't taste the chocolate."

"Thank you," the shop owner replied, "would you like to buy some?" he asked indicating towards the little plastic bags of Chilli Chocolate.

"Yes, thank you," she replied before adding, "just one though."

The shop owner gave a light laugh, "I see," he said before turning to face Eric, "Aren't you cold?"

"A little," Eric admitted, "I don't like wearing pants much," he added sheepishly.

The shop owner looked concerned.

"I mean I don't like wearing long pants," Eric amended quickly when he realised how it sounded.

The shop owner nodded his head slowly, as if not really believing Eric. He only looked away when Nell handed him the money for the chocolate, he then looked back to Eric when he tried to dig his way out of the hole he had put himself into.

"I live in LA, you see. I was raised on the beach wearing shorts and sandals," he tried again.

Seeing that the shop owner was no closer to believing him he went to try again.

"And it's not really a-" he started.

Nell collected her chocolate and grabbed Eric's hand pulling him back into the crowd accompanied by a sigh and the words 'come on Beale, let's keep moving'.

Once they were back in the crowd Nell opened her bag of Chilli Chocolate.

"Why didn't you let me pay for that?" Eric asked, indicating towards her chocolate.

"Why would I make you, or let you for that matter pay for something that you aren't going to eat?"

"I don't know, it just seems like a nice gesture," Eric replied quietly.

"No Eric, the nice gesture was you agreeing to come back with me and allowing me to introduce you as my boyfriend to my family."

Eric looked at his feet with nothing to say to that comment. She (as she so often was) was correct. It had been a huge gesture for him to travel to the other side of the country with very little notice, to be introduced under false premises to his "girlfriend's" family. And yet he'd done it anyway, that, he thought, really was a nice gesture.

Around three hours later they were in search for something to eat other than chocolate and desserts, but at a chocolate festival they weren't having much success.

"Alright. Are we actually going to find anything that's not chocolate here?" Eric asked.

"That's why it's called a chocolate festival," Nell replied.

"I get that, but I thought that there would at least be some food here."

"Technically speaking, chocolate is a food," Nell imputed, "but, I know what you mean."

"Chocolate is a food that will make you feel like throwing up, not make you feel full."

"Food that isn't chocolate can still make you feel like throwing up."

"That is a fine point you make."

"Thank you, but it won't get us food."

"No it won't," he agreed.

They made their way out of the cold because although he hadn't said it, Eric was getting cold, and they both were hungry for something that wasn't chocolate. Nell led the way to a shopping center that was in the area. When they walked in they were blessed with central heating, well Eric more so than Nell because he was the one whom refused to wear long pants and was therefore freezing cold.

Considering the fact that food was their first priority they headed directly towards the food court and got their food.

"Have you warmed up yet?" Nell asked.

"I wasn't cold," Eric claimed.

Nell looked at him with an unnerving look her eyes daring him to man- up with an honest comment, "Yes you were," she challenged, "you're wearing shorts in freezing cold weather. Outdoors."

"Three times in my entire life have I wore long pants," he stated, "when I went undercover as the FAA, last year when Hetty made me-"

"And I cut the bottoms off them," Nell interrupted.

"And also at my college graduation."

"Okay," Nell said not wanting to push the subject further, "since we're here anyway, I want to have a look in a shop called _Enlightenment._ They sell really nice candles."

"Okay," Eric agreed.

They sat in a comfortable silence whilst eating their meals. It was Eric who first broke the silence.

"Is there anything more about the deal?"

"Yes," she replied easily.

"Like what?"

"Like what the actual deal is."

"But is there more than that?"

"Yes, but that will be revealed later."

Eric sighed in the disappointment of the fact that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get her to cave, and he was finding out nothing about a deal that he was a part of, but he didn't know what his part in it was. The only one that could control the situation and tell him what was going on that wasn't going to lose money, but she was also the other fundamental part of the deal therefore she wouldn't tell him. It was so frustrating, like one of these thoughts that kept you up all night, something like the Grandfather Paradox.

Nell reached across the table and grabbed one of his hands, "I promise that you will know before we go back to LA," she said solemnly promising him answers and also setting herself a deadline.

They finished up their food and started towards _Enlightenment_. Nell spent a good forty-five minutes looking and smelling candles with names like 'Harmony, Tibet, Florence, Papaya and Kaffir lime'. Although it was all so fantastic to Nell, Eric was still struggling with his first slightly confused impressions, because how come the smell of artificial fragrances now reminds people of Hawaii and Tibet, or how the shop smelled like a thousand cylinders of fragrance had been released and somehow together all the scents smelled delicious and you could just drink them in, but some of the individual candles smelled like soap.

Then there were the candle holders. The candle holders were some of the coolest things that he'd seen. Apparently the world of Chandler's did have a lot of creativity. Most of the holders in the main display were Christmas themed with red, green and gold and silver colours. There was one sitting on a white cloth, which he assumed was meant to represent snow, in the style of frosty the snowman. It was two sections made from glass with frosted spots all over. The top section was decorated with a smiling face made from tiny black button dots. The top section had a wire frame attached to it that made it sit on top of the lower section leaving a gap in between the two for ventilation. Long story short- it was very cool.

After Nell had bought three candles for herself, they went back to the house, again using public transport as their means of travelling.

 **A/N- For anyone who read this thinking that one cannot spend three quarters of an hour looking at candles, you, sadly, are wrong. No promises on next update.**

 **Thanks for reading, please leave a review.**


	4. Chapter 4- Deal or No Deal

**Chapter 4- Deal or No Deal**

 **A/N- Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed my last chapter, reviews always make me happy so THANK YOU!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own nothing.**

 **TheAlpahbetSong xx**

When they got back everyone was there again just like the previous night; all milling around the food and drinks, most which weren't being touched. He suspected because they were waiting for the eggnog to come out. The only reason that some of the soft drinks had disappeared was because Lucy and the other kids had disappeared with it and a few cups to somewhere else, probably upstairs.

As they walked through the kitchen they could smell a turkey cooking in the oven. Her mum's Christmas turkey was one of the things Nell had initially missed most (apart from her family themselves) when she moved to LA. She had attempted one Christmas to cook a turkey the same way that her mum did, but even though she always helped her mum cook it, it still didn't taste the same.

Felicity turned around when Nell approached her and placed her hands onto her shoulder.

"How was your day?" Felicity asked.

"It was good, I bought three candles from _Enlightenment_ ," she replied.

"How long did you look in there for?"

"Umm, I don't remember."

"Almost an hour," Eric added.

"Really?!" Nell asked unbelieving whipping her head around to look at Eric.

"You made him endure that?" Felicity asked mockingly.

"I did not think it was that long," she said exasperatedly.

"What kinds of candles are they?"

"One of them is Egyptian musk, another is Lime and Coconut and the third is a combination of Chocolate and Caramel."

"I bet they smell good," Felicity added excitedly.

"Oh yeah," Nell replied in agreement.

Her mum went back to cooking and Nell and Eric ventured into the guest bedroom once again. Nell placed the candles with her suitcase on the floor and then collapsed into the bed.

"My feet are sore," she complained kicking off her heel-less shoes.

"Well we did do a lot of walking," Eric stated.

"And I did not wear shoes that can withstand that much walking today," she said turning her head to look at Eric who had his back facing away from her, "but at least I was warm," she added pointedly receiving a mock glare from Eric.

"I wasn't cold," he insisted.

"Sure, sure," Nell agreed still not believing his case line as she sat up and crossed her legs.

Eric turned to look at her, and he was- once again holding the black rectangular gift. He handed it to her.

"Merry Christmas Nell," he said.

Gently she took the top of the box off and carefully pushed the papers aside. Inside there was a clear crystal cut object, she lifted it out to get a closer look. It was crystal cut in the shape of mistletoe, a simple Christmas decoration to anybody else, but to them it was the story of an unspoken memory.

"Thank you, Eric. It's stunning," she said standing up to hug him, "Merry Christmas," she whispered as she stood in their embrace, "it really is beautiful."

"I'm glad you like it," Eric said breaking their embrace.

"Thank you," Nell said again smiling, before leaving them in a silence of nothing to say.

She turned away to put her gift down, she turned back around and for once his lips found hers first instead of the other way around. She smelt like the chocolate and caramel candle she had just bought and tasted like the Chilli Chocolate that she'd eaten on the way back. She didn't gasp when his lips captured hers, she didn't have time. She had been so completely taken by surprise that her lips had just melted to his like hot wax.

She could feel his lips that were slightly chapped against the wind and cold that they had just emerged from, but that really didn't matter. Because in the overall picture when you're kissing someone you've wanted to kiss for years, when they have slightly chapped lips you really don't care. Especially when they are a really good kisser.

One of his hands was nestled in her hair cupping the back of her head, as the other one wrapped itself around her waist pulling her closer. Her arms had wrapped around his neck, using him as support as she lifted herself onto her tiptoes to close the distance between their bodies. She took one hand off of his neck and grabbed hold of his shirt pulling him closer to her, begging him to kiss her harder, but he didn't. He stopped. Nothing more but he just stopped and pulled back.

Their bodies remained against each other although their lips did not. Both trying to recapture the air that had been displaced in their lungs. Eric noticed a spark in her eyes, and it scared him a little that he couldn't decipher what it represented.

"I'm sorry," Eric said, awkwardly now avoiding her eyes.

Nell bit back a small laugh at how stupid he could be at times. If you kiss someone and they kiss you back, both people were part of the exchange and therefore you don't need to apologise.

"For what?" she asked.

"I'm sorry if I pushed you too far."

"Last I checked I was the one who grabbed your shirt," Nell said leaning in so that her cheek was against his. She knew that her hot breath was wafting across his face. She could practically feel him shake.

"Yes," he said remembering and not pulling back from their close proximity, "I believe you did."

"There, it's settled," Nell said awkwardly regaining her posture away from Eric and placing her arms by her sides.

They stood for a while without saying a word. Averting their eyes from each other's glances. Nell got restless waiting for Eric to say something and of waiting for her to think of something to say, so she walked out of the room, with the words, "I'm going to see if Mum needs any help." She again left Eric standing alone his mind probably still confused by her reaction, if he wasn't she'd be surprised because she certainly was.

Nell walked out into the kitchen looking to help her mum with dinner again, but only to find that she wasn't there. She could not go back to the room and Eric, not because she regrated anything, but because she was on the edge of a mild panic attack. She wasn't sure if him kissing her counted as 'honest feelings', because that would be the difference between deal or no deal.

She walked out past the garage and into the living room where most people were milling about, she eyed the crowd for her mum, and not seeming to be able to find her poured herself a drink from the table next to her. Lucy found her standing by the table with her drink in hand.

"Hey, Merry Christmas Lucy."

"Merry Christmas, Aunty Nell," Lucy replied.

"Did you have a good day?"

"Yeah, to a certain extent," she said with belated undertones," because Adian decided to scare the beegesus out of me this morning with a cheerfully sarcastic Merry Christmas now here is the cat hanging on a coat hanger," Lucy replied, "Although I can't actually blame him because he won't own up to it."

"Brothers," Nell said

"Brothers," Lucy replied, "I opened up my cupboard this morning and Jim Jam was there, just hanging on a coat hanger."

"How?"

"Was he hanging?" Lucy asked for confirmation.

Nell nodded her head in response.

"From about here to here," she said demonstrating with her hands showing from her lower neck to the top of her head, "was inside the coat hanger, the bottom of his chin was resting on the bottom of the hanger. And the rest of him just hung limp. When I got him untangled from the hanger he leapt away from me very fast and is now currently taking refuge in the fire place, which means that it will be a cold night because last week our central heating blew out."

"Oh, damn."

"Yeah, and Jim Jam is stubborn and therefore is refusing to move from it. It is his castle we are invading troops and he plans and acts on defending it with his teeth and claws."

"I'm sure your Dad will think of something."

"Yeah, it will most likely involve force and the fire poker stick."

Nell laughed, "Sounds like him."

"Yep, it's not so much of a 'let's see if we can reason with him', it's more of a 'let's use all force and other methods at our disposal and see where that leaves us. World War 3- Cats against Humanity."

"I still think we'd win in that situation."

"Yeah, but the cats wouldn't go down without a fight and a lot of manipulation after they figure out how to speak English."

"That sounds like a book."

"I'm not sure if there are any published works of that sort, but a friend of mine wrote something of a similar sort for a creative writing competition."

"Did she place?" Nell asked, curious.

"No. Unfortunately she did not."

"Better luck to her next time."

"Yeah, she's already got more ideas, and I have had to listen to all of them. And I don't mean that like I don't like listening to them, because I do, but when I've heard fifteen alternate versions to the one storyline in a week, it becomes a bit too much."

"I understand. At work when our case load is major sometimes I get muddled between which footage is for which story, because some of them sound so similar and I have to differentiate between what is being run for each story."

"Do you always have a lot of stories to run?"

"Not always," Nell replied before she noticed Eric standing over at the back of the room where the family photos were. When Nell looked back over to Lucy she had her back turned and was arguing with one of her cousins.

"Merry Christmas, I've got to sort this out. I'll see you later," Lucy said running of with her cousin

"Okay."

Nell took another sip of her drink before walking over to Eric, who was still admiring the photo wall.

"Hey," she said.

He didn't turn around or make any comment.

"Eric?" Nell said again.

He turned around, looking slightly irritated, and possibly frustrated.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"This," he said.

"What's this?"

"Us, and our-" he trailed off

"And our what?" Nell prompted.

"Our cover," he paused, looking hesitant to continue, "I just, I keep getting confused between what's part of reality l and what's the cover."

"And which one was that before."

"That's what I'm saying. I'm not sure. I thought that it would tell me, but then you just left without much of a conversation and I'm just-"

She grabbed his wrists and forced him to look at her, "what was it for you," she spoke softly and her eyes pleaded with him for an honest answer.

"Reality," he said quietly, "for me that kiss was reality."

Nell smiled, as she answered, "Me too."

He returned a smile that was equally as bright, and in Nell's opinion trademarked by him.

 _Honest feelings-_ The phrase kept echoing around her head. Was that considered to be 'honest feelings' or was that just an honest opinion. Were they the same thing, was there a difference, if there was a difference what was the difference.

"DINNER!" Felicity called from the doorway calling everyone in the room to attention, "I have turned the gas heaters on outside and the table has been set. We are eating outside," she finished before happily turning back towards the direction she had come from.

Everyone started making their way towards the food, Nell and Eric walked at a quickened pace trying to get through the doorway. All the kids were running down stairs and then through the hallway getting first dibs on the food.

Everyone who'd stayed at home during the day must have helped set up because the patio outside looked stunning. The inside of the roof had been adorned with white fairy lights wrapped around green tinsel, there was a lit candelabra sitting on a silver and green patterned tablecloth. The food that lined the table looked and smelt really good. The turkey was at the centre of the table and it smelt incredible, if none of the other decoration had of drawn people out of the house the smell alone would've been enough to capture the attention of the neighbours or any passers-by in the street.

People started digging into the food even before everyone was seated at the table, there was a plate of sliced ham, and also one of roast chicken. There were plates of vegetables including onion, carrot, parsnips, celery and potato. Needless to say that all the good parts of the turkey were gone quickly and for the most part washed down with a nice glass of red wine.

Thankfully for Nell and Eric the questions had stopped, and they weren't the centre of attention- the food was. Everyone was eating and barely anyone spoke for the first few minutes. After that conversation broke out, there was talk of Liam, Emma, Lucy and Adian's family holiday to Australia earlier in the year. They had landed in Perth first and from there caught a cruise that took them to Adelaide where they stopped for three nights before driving to Sydney, where the stopped for five nights they climbed up the harbour bridge and visited the Sea Life aquarium. They were also there in time for the Vivid lights show because they had gone in Australia's winter. They had then ventured up to Queensland for a week going to Wet n' Wild, Movie World, and looking at the sugar cane processing plant. But for the most part they just stayed around the heated pool at their resort. From Queensland they had then flown home.

Subtle questions had been asked all throughout dinner relating to the deal, and Nell still hadn't figured out whether it was sealed or not, so she pretended not to notice any of the subtle questions, and answer in the way that the actual question was asked in. And everyone else had to deal with Lucy and Adian screaming at each other in Pig Latin and French. Lucy's remarks in both were much more skilfully worded that Adian's. Eric understood the Pig Latin but understood next to none of the French, whereas Nell knew both and understood the conversation through to the end.

The conversation went something along the lines of:

"Otherbray, htswhay ouryay opway inionpay ofway ethay oodfay?"

 **PL Translation:** "Brother, what's your opinion of the food?"

"It's really good," he replied.

"Ustjay ikelay emay, enthay" Lucy said with smile.

 **PL Translation:** "Just like me then,"

"No," he said, "I said itway asway oodgay. Oodgay otnay itshay."

 **PL Translation:** "No," he said, "I said it was good. Good, not shit."

"Osay ikelay ouryay acefay," She rebutted.

 **PL Translation:** So like your face,"

"Ewscray ouyay," Adian said with no other comeback and way too much ego to surrender.

 **PL Translation:** "Screw you."

"Pourquoi?"

 **F Translation: "** Why?"

Adian glared at Lucy, with very little idea what she said, because her French was much better than his.

"Comprende moi?"

 **F Translation:** "Understand me?"

"Non."

 **F Translation:** "No."

"Tu parle en francais."

 **F Translation : "** You speak in French,"

"Non, je comprende quel le mot 'non ' est. "

 **F Translation :** "No, I understand what the word no is."

"C'est votre la limite,"

 **F Translation :** "That is your limit."

"Oui," he said smiling as if he were proud to have a disadvantage.

 **F Translation:** "Yes,"

"Okay, enough squabbling in Pig Latin and French," their mum Emma warned.

"Sorry Mum," they echoed.

"Care to tell the table what that conversation was about?" Emma asked.

"Not particularly," Lucy replied.

"Yeah mum didn't you get any of that?"

"A little bit, but _you_ spoke too fast," Emma replied.

Lucy and Adian high-fived each other.

"Lucy is learning French in school and taught Adian the basics," Emma explained to those who were tuned into the conversation.

"And basic conjugation of verbs," Nell added.

"Parle-vous francais?" Lucy asked Nell.

 **Translation :** "Do you speak French?"

"A friend started teaching me a little bit and then I self- taught myself," Nell replied.

Eric's eyes widened in surprise, "How come I didn't know you spoke French?"

She turned her head back to face him, "I guess you didn't because we never worked on an article from anywhere of French province."

' _Of course' Eric thought, 'he wouldn't actually get a real answer from her now if it related to their actual lives. But basing it off the story his best guess would be Kensi taught her'._

"But you would've thought that it would have been mentioned."

"But it wasn't, and now that it has been you know. Besides it's not like it's a big deal."

"No, it's just that its cool, I didn't know that you spoke any other languages."

"Speaking of big deals," Karmin interrupted, "any news?" she pried.

"No," Nell replied, "and I'm not going to be the one responsible for if someone ends up broke or not," she said with an angry twitch in her voice, "and nor is Eric."

"Woah, um, Nell please don't bring me into this," Eric pleaded.

"You were brought into this before you knew what the deal is," Nell commented.

"For the record I still don't know what the deal is," Eric imputed.

"You still haven't told him?" Karmin asked from across the table, alerting everyone who hadn't been listening to the conversation at hand.

Nell didn't reply.

"You've got to put him out of his misery."

Still no comment from Nell.

"You know he'll find out eventually," Felicity said.

"But not yet," Nell insisted.

"Well it is really all up to you."

"Yes."

"When everyone is finished same deal as last night, plate in dishwasher, if the dishwasher is full then wash it up yourself," Felicity said making the topic change obvious to the whole table.

Felicity then proceeded to ignore any more conversation on or relating to the deal, maybe she didn't want to know much more, maybe she wanted a surprise at the end, or maybe she was uncomfortable with the whole situation from the beginning. After all, the deal had been made between Nell and her sister, who had then unfortunately told their mum, and then leaked it to the rest of their family.

Later when dinner was partly packed up from and everyone had decided that it really was way too cold outside to continue all conversation out there. It was team effort from all the kids who were on a sugar high from all the soft drink consumed to get the dishes into the dishwasher and washed up. They had willingly offered to do the washing up. Although there was much speculation that it was because they were all cold and knew that if they washed up they 1) got to stay inside and 2) got to keep their hands inside the hot soapy water.

Some of the candles that were inside the house had been lit filling the indoors with enticing scents. In the kitchen there was Sugar Plum, in the living room there was Pumpkin spice and in the bathroom there was Fig and Lime. When Eric and Nell came inside they realised how cold they had been sitting outside. Maybe it was just the food and wine that had kept them warm, but once that had worn off and they had come inside they had realised how truly cold they had been sitting outside. And they were sure that they weren't the only ones.

Someone turned the television on and put a basketball game repeat on. Eric didn't pay much attention as he was more interested in trying to figure out what Nell, her mum and her sister were standing in the corner talking about, but unfortunately his lip reading software was all the way in Ops and he couldn't read lips like Kensi so he had next to no clue what they were saying. He could only make educated guesses based off of body language- which, again was not his forte, but he'd picked up a thing or two from working with Nate. His best guess was that they were talking to Nell about LA, or discussing the deal- either way he was probably involved.

He had to draw his eyes from the conversation when the figures of Blake and Liam, Nell's two older brothers, came looming towards him. They sat down one on either side of him and trained their eyes on him, with a grimace of sorts stuck on their faces.

"Um, hi," Eric spluttered out nervously turning his head from one to the other.

"Dad may be okay with you, but he forgot to ask you some questions," Liam started.

"And we wouldn't want to get the wrong idea of you," Blake continued.

"Okay," Eric said still sounding unsure, "but is it questions or an interrogation?"

"Semantics," Liam replied.

"Past relationships are tricky stuff and no one really likes discussing them, but will anything that happened between you and any past relationships, affect the one you have with Nell?" Blake asked.

"No, they are past relationships, because they are in the past," Eric replied.

 _Agreeing look, Right answer._

"Do you see a future for yourself and Nell?" Liam asked.

"Currently, I do."

 _Sceptical look, wrong answer._

"Currently?" Liam asked.

"Currently is present tense, do you see a future where you could change your mind?" Blake asked.

"I am not a seer, I can't see the future," Eric shot back, hastily, "Every decision someone makes has several sets of directions it could go, besides from good or bad, and you're both married so you know that the present changes the future and so that you don't want to do anything to affect the present because that, ultimately will affect the future," Eric explained, "so whatever I say or think now changes the future and currently I am unsure of many things, but as soon as a decision is made on any of those things it blocks off a future path. So if I give you a definitive answer now I am confining myself on that one path. So I don't and can't know what our future is or what it may hold, but I would never intentionally put Nell in any danger and I could never hurt her. She is too extraordinary for that."

The brothers shared another glance.

"He's good," Blake said.

"Yeah," Liam agreed, before turning to Eric firmly patting hitting on the back saying, "You're good. As long as you're not lying."

"I'm not lying," Eric said.

"He's not lying," Blake said.

"Do you want a beer?" Liam asked.

"No thanks, I'm good."

"You sure?" Blake asked.

"One," Eric said, "I'm not known for my high alcohol tolerance."

"Ah," Liam said, "oh well," as he walked off to find a beer.

They didn't grill Eric after that, they sat and watched the repeat of the game, it was a pretty back and forth game, there were no game changing scores and before half time someone had swapped his beer for a glass of ridiculously strong eggnog. Very similar to the one that Nell had made for OSP last Christmas that he hadn't dare lay a hand on. His previous suspicions that he had of it being a family recipe were most definitely confirmed this year as it smelt just the same as the previous concoction.

The television was turned on mute and Christmas Carols were played. There was a lot of 'Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer', 'Frosty the Snowman', '12 Days of Christmas', 'White Christmas' and 'Deck the Halls' and there was a lot of jolly singing, probably at hands of the eggnog and other alcohol. And then one of the kids plugged in their phone or iPod of Christmas Parodies. It was mostly funny and not so great parodies of '12 Day of Christmas' and 'Jingle Bells' including an Australian Christmas version called 'Rusty Holden Ute.' Although some of the young kids had started to or completely drifted to sleep and it was extremely cold everyone rallied up outside holding candles to sing 'Silent Night'.

Nell walked up to Eric holding their candles he took his with a 'thank you' and a smile. Everyone instantly quietened down when the beginning of the song played and many sang softly along. Part way through the song Nell rested her head on Eric's shoulder and he intertwined his fingers with hers as they sang softly with the lyrics all the way until the last note.

Afterwards there were rounds of 'good nights', 'it was lovely to see you's' and 'thank you's' exchanged between family members as they slowly left the house, until there was only Felictiy, Phillip, Nell and Eric left. Phillip and Felicity declared as soon as Nell's cousins had left that they were going to bed, and s they made their way up the stairs towards their bedroom, turning off the lights as they went. Nell and Eric went back into the guest bedroom which smelt like a candle titled: 'Egyptian Musk' which had more a strong cinnamon scent to than musk, nevertheless it smelt flavoursome.

"Eric," Nell said getting his attention.

"Yeah."

"Thank you."

"For what?" he asked, mentally making a list of possibilities.

"For pretending to be my boyfriend and lying to my family, for dealing with my family's many grillings and answering all the questions. For giving me a wonderful Christmas gift, and letting me shop in a candle store for almost an hour. Thank you for your generosity of giving up whatever other plans you had for the holidays and flying across the country with me, and not getting mad at me for the stupid deal that I made years ago," Nell said.

"Before this my holidays actually looked pretty bleak, I mean besides from our Christmas Horror Movie Festival, I wasn't going to do much. So thank you for giving me a family and friends for Christmas this year."

"You're welcome," Nell said in a very soft voice portraying more emotion in her eyes that he swam in, than the voice that she spoke with.

"Recently, I have discovered that there is a difference between want's, need's and love's," Eric started, "and really none of the differences matter, but what does is that this cover, isn't just a cover for me," he paused letting it sink in," I don't just see this as a lie to tell your family to give reasonable belief for me to be here," pause, "it's the future that I see, the one that your brothers asked me about. What I see is us back here in a year's time doing this all over again. Me being stubborn and freezing to death because I refused to pack long pants, talking to your family about the happenings of the year, wandering through the city and eating unidentified pieces of chocolate. Watching you shop through _'Enlightenment'_ for an hour and seeing what Christmas candles they have out then. I see us singing strange Christmas carols about foreign countries and social media sites and spending three minutes ending the night with 'Silent Night," another pause as he evaluated the expression on her face, "but the discovery I made about want's and need's and love's is that I need you, I want you and that I love you."

Careless of whether he was finished or not Nell reached up fisting a handful of his hair in one hand and grabbing hold of his shirt pulling him closer to her as her lips glued themselves to his letting that be their skill of communication because neither of them were good with words. He held her waist gently whilst his other hand grazed the side of her face letting his fingers wind their way into her hair. Nell broke away suddenly, and let her eyes open slowly.

"What?" Eric asked.

"Are those your honest feelings?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Can I tell you a secret?" she asked rhetorically, "finding out your honest feelings towards me was the deal."

He looked surprised and slightly exploited, "Oh," he said glumly with a pathetic happy cover up tacked on.

"In the beginning it was a game, but then I got to know you better and realise my own feelings towards you, so then I figured that I needed a way to try and seal the deal. The flowers were my first attempt, the mistletoe was my second and after everything else I decided to take matters directly into my own hands, because I needed answers for myself. Somewhere along the way I realised my own feelings, but I needed to hear your words with my own ears," she finished.

The emotion displayed in Eric's eyes caused her breathing to falter for a moment and his face shone with a smile. They resumed their kiss at high intensity with Nell taking the lead with a firm grip on his shirt, until their kissing became French kissing and Eric pulled the control over to him.

Fiery kisses, heavy breathing, jawline explorations, and the thing that Eric did with his bottom lip that was just like wow. With that and newly declared feelings it didn't take long for shirt hemlines to become toyed with and for previous boundaries to become irrelevant. Then the bed came into the equation. They were so wrapped up and involved in each other, that neither were thinking all that much and time just became something they now had more of together. Tugging on clothes; teasingly placed kisses; and the wish that neither of them had to stop.

Sitting to laying, thinking to acting, asking to doing. Eventually clothes came off and necks became layered in kisses. When they reached the point of no return they both searched each other's eyes for answers before they continued. Moans and groans and moments of pure bliss until they reached the end. And lay, limbs entangled with each other, placing lingering kisses on each other before they fell asleep.

 **A/N- Thank you for reading, I apologise for the Pig Latin and French section if it got a bit tedious.**

 **Please leave a review.**


	5. Chapter 5- Now Boarding Neric

**Chapter 5- Now Boarding Neric**

 **A/N- I have no excuse for why this hasn't been updated in more than a year, but pretty much my friends that were reading this have been begging for me to finish. SO although as I look back over everything I've written and have discovered how much I've grown as a writer in this past year, I have pushed through onto my third re-write of this chapter in an attempt to finish it. Please enjoy, if anyone's still reading it. It's also been a year since I've written anything for a Het ship so, apologies if this sucks. Also, 90% of this was most definitely written in the late hours of the night.**

 **All the love, TheAlphabetSong xx**

The next morning was a blur, before Eric could ask any questions or clarify anything about last night's events they were already skipping into the next day. He'd woken up to find the other side of the bed cold, it was just before ten, he'd slept a lot longer than usual. He'd chucked on some clothes and ventured out into the living room where he'd found Nell and her parents. They each had a cup of coffee in their hand and were recalling the hilarities of Nell's siblings last night. Apparently after a few drinks each they decided that it would be a great idea to carry Karmin up the stairs on a beanbag. Felicity had found out about this after she heard a thump on the stairs. Karmin wasn't injured, and there was plenty of debate as to whether the tears in her eyes were from pain, or drunken laughter. Either way she was the first and last test dummy of the Blake/Liam beanbag transport service.

Felicity and Phillip were the first to look up and notice my lingering presence in the hallway.

"Good morning," Phillip said looking at Eric.

"Good morning," he replied.

"Would you like a cup of coffee, or something?" Felicity asked.

"Oh, no thanks, I'm all right."

Eric walked around and sat on the lounge next to Nell.

"Morning," he said.

"Morning," she replied, "How did you sleep?"'

"Like a log," he replied, "well actually, not a log because they don't sleep," he took a moment to think about how he could re-phrase it, "like a bear, except they hibernate over winter so, not like a bear-"

"I get it," Nell said cutting him off, "but I'm glad you slept well," she said leaning forward to kiss his nose, which meant more butterflies squirm around inside his stomach.

After that, things had gotten hectic. With everyone flying around, trying to get ready and eat breakfast, and pack suitcases. How is it that all the same stuff never, ever fits back into the same place? If there is one conundrum that still baffles Eric's mind, it is that. After trudging through the snow to the car where they endured and outlasted snow caused traffic, in the car with Nell's parents. Eric spent the trip looking out the window and talking more to Phillip about his job and about Phillip's car. Although no tears were shed it was still an emotional goodbye, because even though Nell promised to come back for Christmas next year, they both knew the truth. The truth that she probably wouldn't be able to because they'd be saving Los Angeles and the possibly the world from another threat. Of course, they couldn't tell them that, and Eric could see that it broke Nell's heart to continuously lie to her parents. When they drove away Nell told him just that.

"Do you know how much it hurts to make an empty promise?" she asked, "to tell them the same lie every year, 'sorry I'm just really busy' or 'I'm really sorry, but I'm working every day this week' it's the only thing I don't like about this job."

"Yeah," Eric said, trying to sympathise with her, "but you got to see them this year, and it's not like you don't try to get home to see them, but our jobs are more important than they'll ever understand," he said tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "It's the sacrifice that we make, but it doesn't mean that we like having to make it."

"Yeah," she agreed, "but it's for the greater good, our work helps people."

"And we just need to think about that."

"Mhmm," Nell agreed, "it's cold out here, we should probably head inside."

"Yeah." They grabbed their suitcases and walked inside. They passed through check- in, customs, and quarantine. Being a domestic flight, meant that they didn't have to be checked- in three hours before their flight, and so they only had an hour and a half until they started boarding. When they took seats in their gate, Nell pulled out her surface, claiming that she needed to finish up some reports, and Eric was disappointed, because yet again he couldn't talk to her about last night. He'd wanted to do it in the morning, but packing and eating and everything else had become more important. But now was another wasted opportunity.

During their wait, Eric had become hungry, so he wondered off looking for food. He returned to Nell a short time later with a tin of original flavoured Pringles.

"They have nothing," he said, "their stocking is so bad that these." He pointed at the tin, "are the most nutritious food, if you can even call it a food, that they have," he stressed.

"It's the Minnesota domestic air terminal, they aren't exactly known for their foods of nutrition."

"And they're stale," he proclaimed.

"Exactly," Nell said sarcastically, "quality products." She finished typing and closed her tablet.

 _'_ _We're now boarding all passengers on flight 5182 to Los Angeles'_ An announcement voiced.

"Well, that's us," Nell said.

They pulled out boarding passes and filtered onto the plane. The married couple in front of them seeming to be in the middle of an argument and holding up everyone else as they swore at each other and caused a scene. From what they heard it was quite the argument. Both of them cheating on the other while saying that they were working other jobs. In reality the whole thing was bull and their eighteen- year- old son had figured it out. Eric wanted to stay and listen some more but Nell clearly wanted to get onto the plane, and not eavesdrop on a conversation. She grabbed Eric's hand pulled him away from the group eagerly watching the scene unfold. As the airhostess directed them towards their seats she still held his hand with their fingers twined together.

Once everyone was in the plane and the altercation outside was presumably taken care of, safety briefing was held, and they'd taken off, the hostess' came around with drinks carts. As a hostess, that they would later learn was named Sally, walked down their aisle, neither of them planned on getting anything.

"Would you like a drink?" the hostess asked them.

"No thanks," they both declined.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Nell said.

"What about you, sir?" she said looking at Eric.

"No, I'm fine thanks." He smiled politely.

"I could always add something a little extra," she said, and when he didn't answer immediately adding, "For no extra cost."

"No, no thanks," he said.

"So you're saying that a nice looking man like yourself doesn't feel like a nice drink?" she pushed.

"No thanks."

"Final offer, cutie," she said with her red painted lips stretched into a hideous sickly sweet smile.

Nell intervened.

"Look, I see what you're trying to pull," she said, a bitter undertone slithering between her words, "but he's taken." She put her hand on Eric's shoulder whilst forcing a pleasant smile. This woman made her sick.

"Fine," she said, "but if you ever get bored of her, I'm Sally." She extended her hand for him to shake. He declined.

His clear rejection left her to roll her eyes and saunter onto the next row.

"Who did she think I was?" Nell asked rhetorically, more to herself than anyone else, "A sister." She shook her head at the stupidity of that thought. Unless it's Game of Thrones, or Hillbilly America, you don't sleep with your sister.

It took Eric a minute to completely process the conversation, especially Nell's involvement, "She was hitting on me, right?" he asked.

"Yep," Nell replied with remnants of the same undertone, "What sort of question is that?"

"I um," he faltered, "Just making sure, I wasn't reading into anything." She wasn't sure if that was directed at the conversation with Sally, or her comment.

They watched a movie that was set in regency England, but they didn't really talk much, only brief conversations about the plot. Even though they both had the same question on their minds.

 _What is this? What are we? Do you regret last night?_

And both felt that the other didn't have the answers to the questions either. The seven hours passed at a tedious rate, and the chance of conversation was extinguished once again when Eric fell asleep, not waking again until the announcement of final descent preparations were made. They waited until the cabin was mostly empty of other passengers before getting their overhead luggage and making their way off the plane, through customs, immigration, and all of the other necessary security check points including the prolonged, irritating wait at baggage claim. Eventually making their way back out into the Los Angeles daylight.

"Hey," Nell said, striking up conversation, "do you have any reason to get home right now?" she asked.

"No," he answered, "why?"

"I didn't eat on the flight, do you want to get some food?"

"Yeah, sure. What do you have in mind?"

"Waffles."

"Waffles?" he asked.

"Yep, I feel like waffles."

"Okay," Eric said, "waffles it is then."

Once getting their luggage back to the car and fitting it inside the car, they began their search for waffles. Unfortunately, the waffle place that Nell had suggested they go to was closed for renovations, and a lot of other small, independent cafes were closed for the holidays. They did eventually find a place that they could get pancakes, it just happened to be very commercial and represented with golden arches. Not exactly ideal, but the only place that they could find that was open that sold something that they wanted. They got their food and found a table to sit at.

"I don't think I ever thanked you for inviting me," Eric said.

"It's alright," Nell replied, "I just hope you had a good time."

"Yeah, definitely," he admitted, "it was actually nice having a family to spend Christmas with."

"Well, I'm sure you're welcome to come back any other time." She paused, changing her tone from truthfully heart felt, to upbeat, "I mean my family loves you. Dad showed you his car, that's approval if nothing else."

He laughed nervously, "I suppose I'll just have to take your word on that," he stopped, apparently finished until he spoke again, "but wouldn't your parents get suspicious of our cover if I keep going to Christmas with you, and it doesn't change?"

This question stumped Nell, also, she wasn't particularly ready to have this conversation, and yet suggested waffles in a hope of having it. It needed to happen, they at least needed to discuss the previous night, and it made Nell nervous, because if after all these years they put a label on their flirty back and forth and called it a relationship, she'd be equal parts overjoyed, and nervous because she'd never been great with the 'r' word.

"Well, we'll find a way around it, we always do."

Eric sighed, he gave up on hoping that Nell would bring up the topic. He looked at his hotcakes in dismay, and then up at Nell. He was trapped in a realm of despair. For years now he had grown more and more curious about the label of his and Nell's relationship. Pushing the questions away for months at a time, not wanting to offend her by jumping to conclusions. But now… now he was ready for answers. He'd craved the answers for too long now, and after their confessions last night he couldn't go any longer without them.

He wanted answers, he was ready for them now.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Mc Donald's hotcakes," she replied, dodging the question. Eric didn't back down.

He bit his lip and tried again, "What are we?" he asked, "Us, what is this?"

It took her a minute to answer, "Well, last night I told you how I felt, and then things happened that neither one of us were against at the time so…" she trailed off.

"But what does that make us?" Eric stressed again.

"It makes us whatever you want it to be," Nell replied slowly.

Eric let out a small smile as he asked his next question, "Does that mean I can call you my girlfriend?"

"Only if I can call you my boyfriend," Nell replied smiling.

"Of course." He leaned across the table to kiss her, capturing her smiling lips in hers.

They finished their pancakes and Nell drove Eric home.

They battled more LA holiday traffic and the crazy drivers that either didn't know or didn't care about the road rules and that ensuing madness. Does anybody even know what an indicator is anymore? Apparently not, because seven people. SEVEN WHOLE PEOPLE did not indicate as they changed lanes, or turned corners. This whole ordeal made Nell very frustrated, which was unusual, she normally had a very calm persona, but this was rare, and slightly comical. To see someone of Nell's stature and appearance almost launching out of her seat to scream at other drivers with all her usual eloquence. They did arrive at Eric's apartment block in one piece, and without a stopover at the police station.

Eric unloaded his suitcase and took it up to his apartment with Nell by his side. He unlocked the door and put his suitcase just inside, before turning his attention back to Nell who was standing by the door.

"Do you want to come in?" he asked.

"Thanks," she said," but I need to get home."

"Okay."

"But thank you so much for coming this weekend, because my family means a lot to me," she paused.

"It was a great weekend-"

Nell interrupted, "But you also mean a lot to me and I'm glad I found a way to have both at once."

Eric smiled in response.

He kissed her again. Their lips and tongues involved in a tango of sweet love and Christmas.

"You mean a lot to me too," Eric said as they pulled apart.

"I'm glad," she replied wearing a radiant smile, "I'll see you at work, bye Eric."

"Bye Nell," he replied before calling her back again, "Wait, Nell."

"Yes."

"You don't regret anything, do you?" he asked.

"No, I don't," she answered, "The whole weekend was incredible. Every single waking moment was amazing. I have no regrets."

"Okay."

"Bye Eric."

 **A/N- MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL, OR HAPPY HOLIDAYS I wish you all the best for you and your loved ones. I apologise if there are mistakes, I didn't edit because I wanted it up on Christmas as my present to you all.**

 **It's 10:45 pm where I am and I'm exhausted but so relieved to have finally finished this story, it has taken me way too long. I thank everyone who ever read or reviewed this piece. I love you all.**

 **ALL the love (and Christmas cheer),**

 **TheAlphabetSong xx.**


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